Playing Opeth's 'In My Time of Need' Intro

This is a great bit of music for practicing (and a great song!). The first part of the intro is very easy, and the second bit is quite tough and good for stretching your fingers.

Here's the song. Unlike 'Come As You Are' you are probably not familiar with it unless you are into this genre of music, so take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with it. The 'easy' part is played in the first 25 seconds. 25-27 seconds is the tricky part. To put it into perspective the intro riff is 8 notes played over about 3 1/2 seconds, whereas the second is 9 notes played in just under 2 seconds. I still can't play the second riff as fast as it is played in the song, so I wouldn't worry if you can't get it right straight away. =P



Here's the tab for the first riff which is played 7 times at the beginning of the song and also used later on:

e|----------0--------|
B|--------7---7------|
G|------0-------0----|
D|----7-----------7--|
A|-------------------|
E|--0----------------|

Nice and easy, as you don't have to move your fingers on the fret board at all. I am not sure whether you should pluck all the strings downwards or get the last three on the way back up, but I find the former easier as I'm not great at strumming/plucking upwards yet!

The more difficult part:

e|----------0---3------|
B|------1-----1-----1--|
G|----4---4-------4----|
D|---------------------|
A|--0------------------|
E|---------------------|

I put my pinky finger on the fourth fret of G and my index finger on the first fret of B. On the 7th note I use my ring finger to hold the top e string at the third fret.

Here's a video of someone playing the song, if it helps you to see someone else play it.



I'm not at a level where I can play the whole song yet, mainly because that second intro riff is tricky and my fingers don't like stretching that far more long enough to practice it a lot, but if you feel you are ready the whole tab can be found here.